January 2009: The wind is blowing 30 mph, the real temperature is 17 degrees F, it is typical January. Yesterday it was 53 degrees at noon, by 6pm it was 36. But I don't have the blues about any of this. While on Facebook, Regina (the lovely wife) noticed some friends posted they were going hiking. With this inspiration, we decided to ditch plans to work around the house (I had taken a vacation day), and headed for Busiek State Park, about 20 minutes south.
When we left home it was a balmy 42 degrees but sunny.
We arrived, drove past the quarry that operates butt-up against the park, parked near the shooting range,and headed up the switch-backs of the "Purple Trail". It was beginning to warm up. I had a black shirt on, and the sun on my back was hot, making me sweat.
This particular part of the trail has a great view of the valley that small and often dry creek Wood's Fork runs through. This is also the trail that some "crazy trail runners" of which I am one, use for training. Today was the first time I had walked the whole trail and got to really see what was there.
The cool thing about switch backs on a trail or a road is that you can look back where you came from, see your progress and take in a bigger view as you go. When we were about half way up, we stopped and I saw down below another car had parked by the trail head. I could see someone making preparation to hike, trunk of car open backpack on the ground, etc. .. I figured we were moving fast enough we would stay ahead of them. Like I said I had only run this trail, and the amount of time it took us to get to the top, was about the same as what it took me running to get all the way around to where it comes back down. Anyway we stopped and took some pictures and went on our way, leisurely enjoying time together, time without real time constraints.
As we got to the top, I looked back to see if the other hiker had was in sight, nope, nobody back there. Just as I turned around Regina said something like "we're not alone" and there in front of us was the other hiker. This person, I couldn't tell male of female, had bushwhacked, up the side of the hill, ignoring at least part of the switchbacks, and now was on top, ahead of us.
This made me think, "What is your hurry?" but I quickly had to withdraw that remark, because it was too self- incriminating. Today I wasn't in a rush, but only for today. I am usually weighing how much time something will take against how that time would be better spent, and as I said this was the first time I had WALKED this trail, not ran it. When I ran it was with the idea of being ahead, on top.
So as we continued to hike along, stop and take pictures of ourselves, the other hiker was soon out of sight. We stopped to look at the only green in the woods, moss, on the ground and on trees The moss seemed to be especially glowing, showing off even, in the filtered January sunlight.
Completing the loop, we walked along the dry creek bed, gravel probably a foot of two deep in places and discovered a spring coming out of the rocky creek bank. It was cheerfully gurgling over bedrock and disappearing under the gravel of the creek bed. We took pictures of each other at a place where another spring had created an ice cave of sorts, hanging from the rock bluff. We took our time, and in total spent about 2 and half hours just slowing down and accomplishing, by measure of the normal world, not much. It was the most fun we had had in a while. That in itself is a very sobering statement. We should have stayed longer, but there were other things calling that "needed" to be done.
I write this, not to brag that we have thrown off some of the chains of "doing", but to hopefully remind me (and perhaps you) that life is short, and we need to ....."make the morning last", because if you do at the end you'll be "Feelin' Groovy!"
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